Chapter Nineteen - A Gift
CHAPTER NINETEEN
A GIFT
Rush awoke, feeling surprisingly alert. The pain in his leg had all but gone now, reduced to nothing more than a faint background throb. Bright morning light shone around him, bathing him in its warm golden glow. He blinked. That wasn’t sunlight…
“Celestia?”
The glow around the princess’ horn flickered and then winked out. She looked tired. Rush noticed the dark circles under her eyes and hung his head in shame. She’d been pushing herself too hard for him. She needed to be rebuilding her magic, not wasting it on things that would heal themselves with time.
The princess smiled at him, brushing a stray hair from her muzzle. “Good morning, Rush. Did you sleep well?”
The birds were singing in the trees outside, the sun just starting to peek over the horizon. It was going to be another perfect winter’s day. The white mare’s coat shone in the light that flooded through the open windows, making her appear like one of the goddesses from legend. Rush smiled—she would have done this no matter how he protested.
“I did, Princess, thank you.”
“Rush?”
“Hmm?”
“Please…don’t call me that, not here. I’m tired of titles. Sometimes I feel as if ponies see more of what I am than who I am. It is…” She shook her mane, looking away in embarrassment. “Rush, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t burden you with my concerns. Forgive me.”
Rush sat up, brushing off his clothing and testing his weight on his leg. It was still sore, although felt more bruised than anything. Whatever magic Celestia had weaved upon him had worked miracles, and there was precious little he could do to repay her selflessness. He walked gingerly over to his old kit box, collecting the bag he had used as a stable hand, and returned to Celestia’s side. She lay there in silence, watching him approach and looking away, closing her eyes.
“Celestia?”
“Yes, Rush?” She sounded on the verge of tears.
“May I groom you?”
The princess lifted a hoof to her mouth, her voice weak. “Yes…”
Rush lifted the pink mane and began running the brushes through it, careful to avoid pulling on any knots, passing the brush from nearest her neck right to the ends. It was luxurious, so long that he was amazed she didn’t trip on it. The princess lay still, occasionally making odd whimpering noises. Rush was worried for her but continued to brush. The long sweeping strokes, the feel of her hair; it made him feel ridiculously happy for some reason. He could only hope it helped the princess to relax.
“Celestia, I want to know more about you, about your home, Equestria.” He carefully worked at a rather stubborn knot, smiling as it came free. “Most of all, I want to know about the beautiful mare who came into my life one winter’s night. Will you tell me?”
The princess lifted her head and stared right into his eyes. Those large purple orbs felt like they were boring right into his soul, laying it bare before her. A slight dampness on her cheeks showed Rush she’d been crying, and he quickly put down the brushes to gently wipe her tears away.
“I’m sorry, Celestia. I didn’t mean to make you cry.”
She cocked her head on one side, watching him, and then smiled gently. “You didn’t, it’s just me. You make me feel like a filly again, Rush. I don’t know how you do it.”
Rush let out a sigh of relief. The last thing he wanted was to upset her. The mere thought of making such a beautiful girl cry was…
“Rush? Would you… Would you call me… Tia?”
“Tia?”
“Those closest to me call me that, or rather, ‘called’ me that. There’s not many left now, not since…” Celestia’s eyes took on that faraway look he’d noticed whenever she talked of her home.
Rush took up the brushes and began to groom her once more. Distracted from her train of thought, she began to hum as he worked, giggling. “You’re good at that. It feels amazing.”
“I used to be a stable lad for the lord, a long, long time ago.”
“You haven’t lost your touch, I can tell you that much!”
The brush slid effortlessly through the hair, the smell of it tickling Rush’s nose. “Tia? If you want to talk, I’ll listen. Sometimes, keeping things inside isn’t the best way. Someone special I met showed me that.”
Celestia sighed. “Someone special…”
She lay still for a while, feeling the soothing flow of the brush through her mane. Stroke, stroke, stroke… it was wonderful. Right then, she could have happily drifted off to sleep but for the chance to talk to somepony, somepony who didn’t really know her as ‘the princess’, and wouldn’t judge her. To be able to just pour out her heart… could it really be so easy? But with Rush…yes, it really was, wasn’t it? This man had seen things, felt things that few in Equestria could ever begin to imagine, and yet here he was, in his wooden house on a hill in the forest, simply brushing her hair.
“Where would you like me to start?”
“Wherever you want, Tia. I’ll listen.”
And there it was, the open door to her heart that had been locked for so long. The door this ‘human’ had unlocked with little more than kind words and the simple act of grooming her. Others would have tried wooing her, spending lavish amounts of money on attaining her favour. Rush had none of that: no money, no titles, no prestigious family name. He was who he was—Rush, the reed worker.
Celestia smiled, tears welling up in her eyes once more as relief flowed through her, all the pent-up tension drifting away like morning dew beneath her warm sun. In this land, there was no need to raise the sun, no royal duties, no regal responsibility. Here, she was just… Tia. She smiled to herself and began.
“Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria…”
“Tia!”
The princess laughed. “I’m sorry, Rush, I couldn’t help myself!” She nuzzled him gently. “My home is far, far away, on another world…”
Birds sang as the sun rose higher and higher, then gradually began its inevitable descent back below the horizon as night grew ever closer. Celestia talked, Rush listened. Occasionally, he would ask a question to clarify something, and the princess would answer. Rush felt as if he had known her all his life, for she was so calm and ‘comfortable’ to be with. The fact that she was another species simply did not seem to register with him at all. What did it matter? With all that had happened recently, Celestia was a constant, a rock in the sea of madness that had assaulted his once peaceful, if rather dull, world.
She spoke of things he could never have believed: of castles, battles, a beloved sister who had somehow become this ‘Nightmare Moon’, about magic, and even dragons! It was so fantastical that if she hadn’t sat in front of him, he would have believed them to be stories of fantasy for entertaining the villagers. Storytellers were nothing new in the village. In fact, when he was a foal, he—
There it was again. He paused, the teapot halfway to his cup. This was not the first time he had thought of this…foals, hooves...
“Rush? RUSH!”
“OH!” He put the teapot down quickly and hissed in pain. “Ow! Damn it all to bloody hell!”
Celestia ignored his language, taking his hand in her hooves and magicking over the water pail. Quickly, she immersed his hands in the cool water. “Keep them in there for a while, now. Goodness, Rush, are you alright? You were staring off into space!”
The princess gathered the upset crockery and tidied up the mess of spilled tea. It wasn’t too bad, thankfully, but what had gotten into him? Rush had suddenly drifted off when she was talking to him. Was he bored? She had certainly been talking for a long time, more so than she had in years.
“This is my fault,” she said sadly, shaking her head. “I’ve done nothing but talk about myself and my problems all this time, I—”
Rush took his hands out of the bucket and tapped her wetly on the nose. “And you can stop that now, Lady Tia. You’d tell me off for talking negatively like that, wouldn’t you?”
“Well, I suppose I would, but…”
“I asked you to tell me about yourself, and you have, and more. Tia, when you tell me about your home, about Equestria, it conjures up images in my mind. It’s all so strange to me, and yet… I don’t know. I can’t explain it very well.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Explain what?”
Rush stared up into the rafters. What was he thinking? Dreams? That recurring one he’d had of being on a hillside, looking out over lush green fields, the wind tugging playfully at his mane. It was so beautiful, it was where he belonged. It was home.
“Rush?”
He slapped his hands on his knees. “Wait here.”
The princess stretched her legs. Being cooped up in here wasn’t doing her condition a lot of good, but her magic was coming back steadily now. Before long, she would be able to open a portal back home, and she would be able to… to…
She shook her mane. She was overthinking things again. Everything would happen in its own good time. Right now, though, right here, she was happy. There was all the time in the world for duty, for decisions, for…
“Tia?”
Celestia looked up. “Hmm?”
“Um, I…”
She watched him carefully. With his brown eyes and dark brown hair, Rush was quite an ordinary-looking sort of fellow, really, but it was who he was that intrigued her. Despite his occasionally cold and emotionless exterior, he had a good heart. Rush was quite the enigma. He fumbled for words, the first time she had ever seen him like this, and it made her giggle coyly. She felt awful, but simply could not help the mirth escaping, and she lifted a hoof to her mouth to stifle it. Poor Rush went bright red!
“Tia… I… Oh gods, look, I’m not very good at this…”
Celestia reached out and placed a hoof on his shoulder. “Rush, we haven’t known each other long, but you should know me well enough by now to know that I won’t judge you. You didn’t judge me, did you?”
The reed worker visibly relaxed, his shoulders drooping as he let out a loud sigh. “You’re right, I’m being foalish. Honestly, listen to me rambling on!”
Did he? Yes… Yes, he did, didn’t he? Celestia peered at Rush. Was she mistaken? Something in his colouring, the glimpses she had caught of his dreams in the netherworld. His mother, Willow… it was all just coincidence, wasn’t it?
Rush cleared his throat, bringing her back to the present. His face had suddenly reverted to that deadpan serious expression she remembered from when she had first met him.
“Tia, I haven’t got much in this world. I suppose that what you see is what you get. You…” Rush scrubbed the back of his head nervously. “You’ve given me so much, since the first day I met you. I… That is… Damn it all!” He slammed his fist on the floor, making Celestia jump. “Here! It’s for you.”
Rush bowed his head, holding out his hands to her. Nestled between them was a small bag with a drawstring. Celestia reached out and took it carefully in her forehooves.
“A gift? Rush, you didn’t need to give me anything.”
He nodded. “Maybe, but Tia, I haven’t got anyone: no family, no children. When I go, this place will just rot in the ground like my bones, perishing into dust until there’s nothing left here, not even memory. This… It’s too perfect, too beautiful a thing for it not to go to the one I…” Rush coughed suddenly and looked away. “Please… just take it… please?”
Celestia watched Rush’s clumsy behaviour with a puzzled expression. He was acting very strangely. He reminded her of a colt in springtime; perhaps he—oh! Ah, it was all so obvious: the blushing, the stifled words.
She nodded her head and closed her eyes, whispering, “Of course, Rush. Thank you.”
Carefully, she enveloped the gift in her magic, feeling the strings gently opening the bag and tipping the contents into her hooves. A small wooden box, covered in intricate carvings, neatly dropped out. Celestia gasped, nearly crying out in surprise.
“Rush! What… where… how…?” She didn’t know what to say. It was the box, the box that had been stolen from the castle all those years ago! And now, on a different world, in a wooden shack, in a forest on a hillside, it appeared as if by…
She smiled, throwing her head back and laughed out loud. Oh, Fate! Everypony was a puppet to that master of puppets, pulling even Celestia’s strings to its whims. Who could have known, how could she have known? And yet somehow, it all seemed strangely inevitable. Celestia clutched the box to her chest and closed her eyes,
“You’ve saved my life, and now you’ve saved my home. Rush, I can’t give you anything even approaching the value of this most precious of gifts. It’s… It’s overwhelming.”
Rush shook his head. “I don’t want anything in return, my lady, only your smile.”
Celestia put the box down beside her and reached for Rush, enclosing him in her forelegs as he put his arms around her. Warmth spread through her, making her heartbeat quicken, her breathing becoming ragged. She hadn’t felt this way in such a long time. Such things were for colts and fillies, not for her. Her world was an endless monotony of work, duty… emptiness. Rush’s scent filled her senses. Even now, the smell of freshly cut reeds, and the herbs she’d used to bathe him while he was injured, tickled her nose playfully. A flood of long-buried emotions began to emerge, making her gasp in a breath involuntarily.
She could feel his heartbeat, feel his breath warm against her coat. He was such a strange creature and yet, he made her heart stir so…
The princess of the sun leaned down and planted a kiss softly on his forehead.
“Oh Rush, you really are a lost foal.”
Stats
Page generated in 0.026 seconds
Total duration
983 users online
198,673 hits today, 2,244,100 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
I know what you said about things becoming clearer in the future, Bluespectre, but this chapter is pretty much what I mentioned being leery about after chapter 10.
I'm fine with "I just want to be a normal mare," but the strength of this reaction is a bit out of left field. We've seen no indication thus far that she has any feelings along those lines, and now she's suddenly really going out of her way to show her feelings and to dissuade him.
Which wouldn't be so bad, except that this kind of reaction is very frequently used to try and connect the princesses to someone who is not royalty. Speaking of...
Which brings me to the real reason I was hesitant: a rushed relationship (no pun intended). He's cared for her. She's cared for him. Neither was in much a position to interact with the other while being cared for, so this is really the first actual time they've spent together...
...and now they're suddenly pretty much head over heels for each other. Again, with little actual buildup to it.
You have a wonderful pair of worlds here - a darker Equestria where the rise of Nightmare Moon was a long, bloody affair, as well as what appears to be feudal Japan. You have a ton of plot points building to a massive overall story - a princess trying to escape long enough to recuperate, an experienced enemy who wants to win within a well-defined code of warfare conduct, and a young, brazen enemy who pretty much just wants the world to burn. You have us on the edge of our seats and wondering how the interplay between the two who want to defeat Celestia - and now each other - will affect the town and all its citizens, and who will come out of this alive. We're anticipating Rush and Celestia finding each other in this horrible situation and coming to rely on the other in order to overcome.
But with this chapter it really feels like all of that leading up just came to: Surprise! Blam; love.
6248706
Y'know actually this fic is starting to strike me as an experiment on the author's part. There's a lot of unusual elements and perspective changes. My guess is s/he's still developing their style, since the overall quality of the writing is good.
6299357 Indeed it is. But it's also a parallel story of the 'main' one, Fairlight. The war, the thestrals. Thorn is actually a character that appears on the main story as well.
If you can endure the first part that is, honestly, not very well written, and go to the second part, I think you may enjoy it a lot!
6248706
I've been wondering where this story takes place for some time, but I'm pretty sure it isn't Japan. This story's characters frequently say "good gods", "oh gods", "by the gods", and the like. I'm fairly sure Buddhism, which was feudal Japan's main religion, does not have multiple gods. That said, I do admit I don't really know much about Buddhism, so I could be wrong. Also, none of the character names strike me as sounding Japanese. You don't need to watch a whole lot of anime to know that "Rush" isn't even close to Japanese.
As for the relationship between Rush and Celestia, I do agree that it was rushed. There was no build up, the two were suddenly just in love like that.
7127394 Hi, thanks for reading and commenting. You’re absolutely right, I modelled the world on feudal Japan, but I didn’t want it to actually ‘be’ Japan as I felt this could end up becoming a little ‘too recognisable’. I think it works, anyway! In regards to Rush and Celestia’s relationship, a couple of readers commented on how the two behaved towards one another fairly soon after meeting. I considered how these two complete opposites may react in a situation like this and I think Celestia treats Rush almost motherly initially, but certainly does have feelings for him. Whether this could be considered love is, I think anyway, open to interpretation. If their relationship can last the test of time or is the ‘real thing’ however is something only time will tell. There’s more of their relationship in Ice Fall, which is the follow up to this story, and I’m part way through the third instalment which is focussed predominantly on Rush and Celestia.
As always, thanks for reading and commenting!
Bluespectre
I bet 100 bits that the box holds the Elements of Harmony.
I like Rush except when he's around Celestia. They've no genuine chemistry and he acts like an entirely different person for no explained reason.
If Celestia makes everyone act like this around her, I'm not surprised that Luna might see her as a villain. It certainly looks like Celestia has unwittingly mindraped Rush.
7127394
Shinto (Japan's actual religion) does believe in spirits.
8639524
Note to self: learn more about Shinto.
8645007
It does have spirits, but Shintoism is at it's core a firm of animism.